The present invention relates to a generic goods-containing crate which can be stacked during use and can be partially mutually interlocked to form packs during storage.
As is known, crates for containing and carrying goods, such as for example for the transport of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, food products in general, and so forth, are currently used in many fields.
These crates must have sufficient mechanical rigidity so that they can be stacked, and must also be suitable to be fitted inside each other to reduce space occupation both during storage and when the crates return empty.
Currently commercially available solutions are constituted by wood crates, which cannot be mutually packed, or by cardboard crates, which have the advantage that they are assembled when they are to be used and accordingly do not occupy a lot of space during transport when empty.
However, cardboard crates have the drawback that they are not always capable of bearing the weights that occur especially when multiple crates are stacked.
In order to solve the problem, Italian patent application no. MI93A 000180 proposed a crate obtained by means of a thermoformed sheet-like element made of synthetic material which has a central tray-like body provided, at two opposite edges, with L-shaped tabs that can be tilted down with respect to the central body so as to be arranged to the side of the lateral face and to engage beneath the bottom, when the crates are mutually stacked, or so that they are turned over towards the outside of the central body, so as to pack together several empty crates.
This solution is very effective both from a practical and from a mechanical point of view, but it has the drawback that it produces non-standard space occupations for packed crates, since the wings that protrude with respect to the central body lead to dimensions that are not compatible with the dimensions of the pallets that are normally used.